IT'S IN THE BRAND

by The Oracle

Saints' coach Grant Thomas has achieved a great deal since he took over at the helm of the St. Kilda Football Club. He has introduced a whole raft of expressions from parts other than the football world and applied them to the organization he oversees in both a coaching and management capacity. He has treated it like any other corporate body in a world of high capital, profit margins, stakeholders and wrapped it all up in the concept of the brand. His players, at least those who Training Services permits to run out on the ground at the weekend, are merely pawns in the game. The coach switches them around the ground, pulls on some toggles and "voila", a big percentage earner for the club's investment group.

Groan.

Oh, for the days of fair dinkum football, when you player for the jumper and not the brand and when a team plays with passion, like it's having fun and wants to win, not for corporate profits or for a trade mark registered brand name.

I'll give you the news. That's the difference between Melbourne and St. Kilda at the moment. Neale Daniher has his charges playing an exciting brand of footy - especially at the MCG where it's been a winning brand so far in 2006.

Otherwise, the two teams appear to be very much on par. Both have five wins from nine matches with the Saints in fifth place and ahead of the seventh-placed Demons only on percentage. The winner will move a step closer to the top four, the loser will come precariously close to dropping out of the eight.

For Melbourne, that's not an appealing thought given that its next venture is a clash with Collingwood on Queens Birthday weekend. Both teams have had their injury woes this year but the good news for Melbourne is that its problems are diminishing every week while the Saints problems are getting worse every week.

St. Kilda has now lost star midfielder Lenny Hayes who had a knee reconstruction this week. That's bad news for them because Hayes has been their main man in 2006. He leads the Saints on just about every statistic other than the goal kicking stats. He would have been second to Chris Judd in Brownlow favouritism this time last week. Add him to Justin Koschitzke (fractured skull), Aaron Hamill (knee), Raphael Clarke (quad), Xavier Clarke (hip) and James Gwilt (leg) and there's a mighty big gap in their lineup. You can add Stephen Powell to the list because he was rubbed out for four weeks after committing an indiscretion or two whilst playing for the Scorpions in the VFA last week.

Well then, you might nod your head and say, "yes but they still have Nick Riewoldt" and you'd be right. He is a danger man but you might also recall that Riewoldt kicked 9 goals against Melbourne when they met on the MCG two years ago and the Demons still won by 53 points!

Melbourne's injured players are Clint Bizzell (leg), Alistair Nicholson (foot), Paul Johnson (shoulder) and Nathan Brown (hamstring). Brad Miller is on the sidelines after accepting a 2 week suspension for a jumper punch at Subiaco last week. I understand that the jumper that was punched ended up all the worse for wear in some Perth Laundromat on Sunday night but fair go! He was only standing up for his brand, er, his team mates and it's ridiculous to say that this sort of thing was behind the play. You have to show your colours somewhere.

The "outs" are not nearly going to hurt Melbourne much this week with the exception of Doggie. If I recall Big Al's performance on Fraser Gehrig last year correctly, his absence this week might not be a problem at all. It certainly, isn't going to hurt as much as the loss of Hayes, Kossie and Hamill!

Getting down to Sunday's game, it's fair to say that the Demons are the surprise favourites. The bookies have put them ahead despite the fact that when they last met in Round 18 last year, the Saints walloped them to the tune of 88 points and showed no mercy beating them in front of the faithful at their own home ground.

So what's changed?

Well, for starters, when last year's game was played Melbourne was imploding. It was suffering from injuries, loss of form and confidence and St. Kilda was pushing hard to consolidate a top four position. As I've already mentioned, this time around, the Saints have been harder hit by injury and the key is the man who has been the most important player for their brand - Lenny Hayes, a prolific ball winner, strong tackler and the team's prime mover. Who will replace him in that role?

An ageing Robert Harvey?

An ailing youngster in Luke Ball whose groin could barely allow him to stand up after a game a fortnight ago?

No. I think not.

Melbourne has a midfield that has just tested itself against the might of the West Coast Eagle on ball machine. It didn't dominate but it held its own but I would suggest that against the Saints, it will have too many trump cards with Brock McLean, James McDonald, Travis Johnstone, Cameron Bruce and Brad Green all in good form.

And another big difference since this time last year is that the Dees have the Byronator and the Saints don't. There's no Brent Guerra at the Saints who can be sent in to apply a deft tackle on an unsuspecting midfielder.

The Demons will be buoyed by the fact that skipper David Neitz will break Robert Flower's club record of 272 games. The high charged emotion and excitement of achieving this milestone at the MCG will give them a break that can't be overcome by men in pinstripe suits who spend their days number crunching and checking out the stock market to see how their brand is going.

That's why I'm tipping that when the going gets tough, it will be the Demons who will be doing the damage this time. They will impress their brand so hard on the Saints that they might have to call a special general meeting of stakeholders to explain why their football stocks are drowning in a sea of red.

Melbourne by 62 points.

MELBOURNE V ST KILDA

Sunday June 4 at the MCG, 2.10pm AEST

TV & Radio -

TV Channel 9 Melbourne (4pm), Perth (3pm) Fox Footy Channel -- Adelaide (1.30pm)

Radio MMM

TAB Sportsbet Odds Melbourne $1.75 St Kilda $2

Head to Head Played 194 Melbourne 116, St Kilda 77, Drawn 1

The last time they met St Kilda 27.14 (176) d Melbourne 13.10. (88) at the MCG, Round 18, 2005.

The Teams

MELBOURNE

B Carroll Rivers Whelan

HB Bartram C Johnson Bell

C Johnstone McDonald Davey

HF Robertson Dunn Yze

F Bruce Neitz Pickett

FOLL White Green McLean

I/C Bate Holland Jamar Moloney

EM Godfrey Smith Ward

IN Bate Holland

OUT Miller (suspended) Godfrey

ST KILDA

B Baker Hudghton S Fisher

HB L Fisher Maguire Gram

C Goddard Ball Montagna

HF Thompson Riewoldt Voss

F Milne Gehrig Schwarze

FOLL Blake Harvey Dal Santo

I/C Ackland Fiora McGough Peckett

EM McQualter Murray Rix

IN Fiora

OUT Hayes (knee)

Field umpires: McLaren Meredith Wenn